| 1 Corinthians 12:30-31,13:1-17 30 Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But covet [earnestly desire] the best gifts; and yet I will show you a more excellent way. 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and do not have love, I have become like sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and do not have love, it profits me nothing.1 4 Love endures long, and is patient and kind; love does not envy; love does not boast, and is not puffed up in pride, 5 Does not behave itself unseemly, is not self-seeking, is not angry,2 keeps no record of wrongs; [love is not self-seeking, does not insist on its own way, nor seek its own pleasure, nor is love possessive; but instead defers to others as long as what they prefer is not immoral, dangerous, or of major consequence.], 6 Does not rejoice in evil, but rejoices in the truth; 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they shall fail; where there are tongues, they shall cease; where there is knowledge, it shall vanish away.3 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then what is only partial shall be abolished. [that which is perfect, is the appearance of Jesus Christ, resurrected in a man; the man becoming a totally new creature, walking in the newness of life — the life of God, in his light, through his eyes.] 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood like a child, I thought like a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. [At first, we can only catch a tiny glimpse of Christ, but when he comes, we will know him face to face in ever increasing glory; then I will know him, even as he knows me.] 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love. | |||||||||